Pictures of Duolun Lu

Duolun Lu is one of my favorite streets to wander. I'll have a few updates about the surrounding area, just because that's how much I enjoy it. This is a generalized take on the central street.

Duolun Lu's obvious comparison point is Taikang Lu, where an old shikumen was partially converted into a bunch of snazzy, chic boutique shops, the kind that foreigners just go wild for. Only, Duolun Lu isn't quite as snazzy, and is located near Hongkou Stadium and North Sichuan Road, a decidedly less chic part of town. The street has some really beautiful landmarks, though, and furthermore was the home of many of China's left-leaning literati, in the first half of the 20th century - including Lu Xun, perhaps the most important 20th century Chinese author. The area is dotted with statues dedicated towards these artists, or in some cases, to famous personalities from the era.

The main street has some interesting sites, like an Early Shanghai church, done in a Chinese/Western style. It was re-purposed after the Liberation, but is now again serving as an active church:



There's also this mansion that's still in use, I believe by the city government:



And then some buildings that aren't in a great state of repair, but still have a cool 30's Shanghai look to them:



Interspersed are some fancy newer buildings. They're generally such things as art dealers and cafes:



And a bunch of other older buildings, either old apartment buildings, or just older buildings that have been converted into curio shops. They're more interesting than one would expect - I bought an old-school Ruan Lingyu poster for a dollar.



Behind the main tourist street is normal shikumen living, with lots of narrow brick corridoors. This isn't a very exciting photograph, but it's a typical scene:



Bouquets of flowers decorate this door:



And there's the normal cheap street food available:



Really, this is one of the best areas of Shanghai to wander, not only because of Duolun Lu but also for the immediate surroundings. In addition to Wanshou Zhai Xiaolongbao, which I've mentioned before, there's Sichuan Lu and some cool shopping (Including Snaps Shop 2 and a branch of Lillian Cake Shop), Lu Xun park, areas of beautiful old brick buildings alongside Yishan Lu, and Hongkou Stadium. Oh, and there's also occasional decorative-rock markets on the street, but I'm not sure on which days.

It's a very photogenic area, and on a nice day there's a whole lot of people wandering around with cameras. While I'm on the subject, a number
of photos here were taken on the Seagull-branded toy camera I mentioned earlier.

Danta

Here's a short update about a favorite subject: danta! Danta is an egg custard tart. It's a dessert that's associated with Macau, although I've read that it originated as a slight riff on some Portuguese or English desert.

To my mind, Lillian Cake Shop, a chain that's located throughout Shanghai, creates pretty much the perfect danta. The reason it's better than the competitors is mostly that it's cooked at a higher temperature. Like a creme brulee, the sugar at the top of the danta hardens and forms a thin caramelized layer at the very top - most places don't do this. In addition, the crust is light and flaky, but salty, a very nice contrast with the intense sweetness of the cream. It all goes for just 3 kuai, and out of the oven it's impossible to beat.



These cakes are located all around Shanghai, including inside a large number of subway stations. If none of these other danta are quite as good, a number of them bear mention. The first is from Lisboa Macau Restaurant, a favorite restaurant which I've written about before on this blog. They make a standard danta, as well as an egg-white danta. The egg white danta is lighter, bordering on a meringue, and definitely worth trying:



The other I plan to talk about is a little embarassing: KFC! It's the most popular fast food in China, but KFC makes some efforts to localize the menu, and one of these localizations is danta. KFC's dantas are actually pretty decent. It's in the same vein as Lillian Cake Shop, and they even caramelize the top layer, just overall it's not quite as good. They offer standard danta, and then a danta with candied fruit on top. The candied fruit is disgustingly sweet and throws off the whole balance of the flavors! Anyway, the worst thing that can be said about KFC's danta is that the 5 kuai/danta price, about equivalent to seventy five cents US, is much more than charged elsewhere.

Quanzhou

Quanzhou is a medium-sized city in Fujian Province, a historic port city that Marco Polo once raved about as the largest port city in the world. I like all the temples and religious buildings and whatnot, and actually visiting this city was my impetus for the larger trip. While it was a nice enough city, I'll admit it was perhaps the low point of my trip to Fujian.

But I'll start by saying: yes, there really are a lot of old temples and shrines scattered here and about. Many of them still seem in use, not just a tourist draw the way temples can feel in Beijing or Shanghai. Here's the largest and most famous, Kaiyuan Temple:



But really just walking down the street, it was possible to come across active shrines and temples. I didn't go on a big day for Buddhism, but the Guandi Temple was quite active, and even on the sidewalk people stopped to burn incense. There were prayer pillows just sitting around on the sidewalk, for people to kneel in prayer. I wish I had gotten a better picture of it:



And a little out of the way was Chongfu Temple, an interesting modern neighborhood temple with a beautiful grounds, and a lot of Buddhist monks busily going about their business:



Additionally, there were a few other religions represented: the world's sole remaining (crypto) Manichean Temple is located in a village nearby, UNESCO sponsored a very interesting paper about it. There's also the remains of the Qingjing Mosque from a thousand years ago:



It wasn't all old churches, of course, and Quanzhou has several long streets, filled with shops and restaurants. It's not nearly as vertical as with larger cities, though: most of the shops were kept to a single floor. It all had a lot more character than one might expect: here's a shop that sells only red dresses:



And here's a side-street full of restaurants, this one's sign offers lamb, goose, and dog meat. But all I saw was roast chicken:



While there wasn't much in terms of nightlife, I did see a really cool take on DDR, the rhythm-based video game. It was hooked up to a real drum set! This girl was good, from a distance I thought I was hearing some rock band, playing in a club:



Anyway, these shopping streets are very, very long. I walked them back and forth a few times, and got so tired! In addition to taxis, there were also a large number of pedi-cabs. It seems Chinese-y, I guess, but it's the first time I've seen them in a way that wasn't entirely directed at tourists.



And continuing on with my earlier discussions on xiaolongbao, I ordered the local variety, and it was one of the strangest versions I've ever had. The dough on the outside was thick and mealy, tasting more like wheat bread. The meat filling was hearty and rich, and the dipping sauce was a hot-sauce, rather than vinegar. I like it, but it was really stretching to call it xiaolongbao! Most people ordered it with a broth that had some peanuts added.

Pictures of Fudan University

Fudan University, in the north of Shanghai, is one of China's top universities. I haven’t attended the university, so I’m not about to provide some full-scale expose. But I did wander the grounds with a former student, and I thought it was interesting, so I’ll attach a few pictures in this update.

The University is effectively split into two different halves, on opposite sides of a major street. Right at the entrance to one side is a large statue of Mao Zedong:




There’s also a skyscraper/classroom building, the Guanghua Towers. It’s a new building which houses mostly science and engineering classrooms, from what I’ve been told. I can’t imagine how crowded the elevators must be, right when everyone gets out of class all at once:



And another skyscraper building is to the rear of this picture, on the opposite side of the campus. It's not quite as large, it hosts liberal arts classrooms.



The university has been around for slightly more than a century, though, and a number of older buildings are still in use. These buildings are much smaller and seem pretty pleasant. They also have large fields around them, and wide roads that cars can drive on, and really much of the university seems very much in the American university model:



And there’s also small parks and gardens scattered about:



I didn’t see much of student life, because I visited during the summer on a weekend. However I did see that the school had organized a school dance from 3-7pm, very quaint. On the Liberal Arts side of the university, there were streets directly off-campus full of bookstores and restaurants and so forth, it seemed like it would be a lot of fun. Also, the main pathway was lined with street-side dealers selling snack foods, or clothes, or even kites:

Seagull Camera

Seagull Camera, based in Shanghai, is China's premier camera brand, which isn't saying much. Everybody in China gets Japanese cameras, same as in the US. The company has never even developed a digital model, and I don't really understand how it still survives – perhaps through generous government subsidies?

The Seagull headquarters is located near the Bund, on Huqiu lu near Suzhou River – it’s directly south of Zhapu Lu food street. I didn’t walk around, but I saw it contains a display room, where most of their products are for sale.


Those with an interest in taking pictures might find the brand worthwhile. Seagull exports their TLR cameras to a niche market throughout the world, they're one of only two companies still producing TLRs. These cameras use a film size that is four times larger than 35mm film, and hence contains four times as much detail – theoretically, image quality is much better than any 35mm or digital camera. In operation, they don’t really look anything like a normal camera. I’ve only seen somebody using one once, here’s a picture of it:



The Seagull model is an imitation of the premier TLR brand, Rolleiflex. Personally, I own a Japanese-made Yashica, which also imitates Rolleiflex, and can confirm that the picture quality is outstanding. While I’ve heard the Seagulls TLRs don’t have as good a lens, and that quality can be inconsistent, it’s possible to find them used for around $25 or less, say at the Xingguan Photo Mall. There’s also a 109 model that I suspect is actually an OK camera, and has a higher-quality lens. However, it’s a newer model, not available used, and sells at a higher cost than a used Yashica.



Looking at these used Seagull Cameras gives a quick look at the wacky economy of post-Liberation China. The brand-name “Seagull” itself was shared among various companies, who separately made the same product at different factories. Additionally, the design was shared with a number of regional camera companies, which have since dissolved, but the cameras can still be found used.

Seagull’s other main product is the Seagull DF series. They’re a line of film SLR cameras. Interestingly, they’re fully compatible with Minolta’s old manual-focus lenses (and vice-versa). These cameras are cheap new, and practically free used. It’s a very easy way to get into SLR photography – used, a camera plus a 50mm F1.4 lens goes for about $50. On the other hand, getting a used Minolta XG or X-700 off ebay won't be much more expensive, and they're probably better cameras. Anyway, here's some information on Seagull's SLR line, for those with an interest in giving them a try. I'd guess the zoom lenses aren't very good, but I'm sure the prime lenses are fine. And at $30 for a new 50mm lens, and $60 for a 24mm, it's not a huge investment.



It will blow away the results from any non-DSLR digital camera, especially in lower light. As an example, here’s a band-picture of Muscle Snog, taken on ISO800 film, actually with a slightly dimmer F1.8 lens. Fuji also makes an ISO1600 film, although good luck finding it in Shanghai.



And here’s a picture of a band taken on a small digital camera. While it’s not a scientific A-B comparison, please believe that I’ve taken a lot of band pictures, and both results are pretty typical:



The display room also (strangely enough) sells Olympus's Stylus Epics, a line of smallish point-and-shoot film camera. They're still new, and there's a number of varieties. I have a couple and love them. The fixed-lens is the one to get for indoors, but the variations with zooms are also very good as an outdoor camera.

Seagull also re-brands generic cameras and cheap digital cameras. I ended up getting a 25mm toy camera. It’s fun, even if it sucks:

Shanghai Nights

I was happy to come across a video of the ultimate Shanghai song - "Ye Shanghai" or "Shanghai Nights." It's a jazzy tune from the 30s that I only knew through "Suzhou River," which is itself the best modern movie about Shanghai. It's still a well-known song with Chinese people. I'm told it was associated with the Paramount Theater, a jazz club on the far corner from Jing'an Temple.

Make sure you're in a place that tolerates dancing, then give it a listen!